Thursday, 22 November 2007

social media use in low resource settings - who knows?

The digital gap is very real in all low resource areas. While MIT’s one-laptop-per-child is giving access to the much needed hardware, the digital impact of low resource areas is not clear even with the use of social media that is emerging.

But I would imagine (and feel) there is a shift in the new digital era that can make a difference. This shift engages low and high resource areas to exchange knowledge.

The only thing is, what kind of impact do low resource areas have that implement social media?

With the growing access to social media and the web, more secluded areas with (former) low connections are beginning to find their way to the Web and to one another. This new connectivity has a big impact on the global community. That knowledge is helpful and has an impact on health, biology, antropology, etcetera for the world. Or at least, I would think so.

But will these emerging (old) cultures that are engaging in social media projects influencing the global space? What is the impact of social media in low resource areas?

I was following a seminarin SCOPE on low resource areas and eLearning a couple of weeks ago and the output was interesting, but the impact of social media was not discussed.

So does anybody know an example where low resource areas started using social media? Because I would love to know and dive into that topic.